Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to a method and apparatus for controlling evidence and, more particularly, a method and apparatus for storing, retrieving, maintaining, deleting and tracking the chain of custody of digital evidence.
Description of the Related Art
In today's legal system, evidence is an essential aspect of litigation. Evidence must be carefully accumulated, stored under state or federal rules, and tracked throughout its existence. For a document or an object to be useable as evidence in a court room, such document or object must comply with all the laws applicable to evidence retrieval, maintenance, and tracking. In other words, evidence must remain authentic and its chain of custody must be maintained.
From the point of its retrieval, evidence is handled or viewed by many individuals. For example, evidence is handled or viewed by investigators, police officers, attorneys, witnesses, or an evidence keeper. Such individuals may co-exist at the same location, in different buildings, even in different cities, states, or countries. Thus, with numerous people interacting with the evidence, it becomes challenging to maintain the authenticity and the chain of custody of evidence.
If authenticity or chain of custody of a piece of evidence is challenged, the court may disallow the use of such evidence in a court room. In some cases, such as criminal cases, the cost of improper space handling of evidence maybe someone's freedom or life.
The challenges of handling evidence are exacerbated when the evidence is digital evidence, i.e., information stored upon a disk drive, compact disk (CD), or other digital media. Such digital evidence, if not properly handled, can be easily corrupted or destroyed. Furthermore, due to the intangible nature of digital evidence, tracking the chain of custody of digital evidence is difficult.
Therefore, there is a need for a system that would allow individuals, in different locations to access evidence without interfering with the authenticity of evidence, while simultaneously, providing a simple process for maintaining the chain of custody of a piece of evidence.